The great Beck-Grossman debate of 2011 has gone national. It’s not exactly Sonny vs. Billy, but who Redskins coach Mike Shanahan goes with under center in Week 1 against the New York Giants will still be telling about the state of the franchise. Is it Rex Grossman, the veteran and a former Super Bowl quarterback whose ceiling seems pretty evident at this point, or John Beck, the 30-year-old who is only now getting his first real chance in the NFL? Everyone has an opinion. “I tend to believe that John Beck is going to get the first shot,” NBC football analyst Cris Collinsworth said during a conference call Tuesday. “When he came out of college I studied him quite a bit, and I can remember thinking ‘This guy looks like an NFL quarterback.’ Now does he have John Elway’s arm? He doesn’t or else he would have been taken in the first round instead of the second.”
Both quarterbacks have had their moments during the preseason. Beck has a 99.9 passer rating with a better completion percentage (74 percent to 64 percent) and Grossman is at a 92.3 rating with more passing yards (407 to 248) and two touchdowns to one. Both have one interception. Yes, preseason stats are virtually meaningless. The real games start Sept. 11, after all. But it’s all we have to go on so far, especially on Beck, who has appeared in all of five NFL games.
“The more I watch quarterback play, the more I like guys that don’t give up the big plays going the other way,” Collinsworth said. “[Players] that don’t take the sacks, that don’t fall off their back foot and throw interceptions, that know where the check down is, that sort of believe there’s nothing wrong sometimes with a punt. Just don’t give them the ball on our side of the field and give them a chance. I just think that ultimately John Beck has that sort of discipline — or he did have that sort of discipline in college [at BYU] — and now with Mike and Kyle Shanahan, I think he’s the right fit.”
– Brian McNally
